The test lets users compare the performance of those three graphics APIs - DirectX 12, DirectX 11 and Mantle - on their PC. It does so by comparing the number of draw calls each API can handle (see the video below for a more detailed explanation).

AMD says on its blog that when using its Radeon R9 290X graphics card with DirectX 12, this delivers a 1,547 per cent performance gain in terms of draw calls compared to DirectX 11, and a 953 per cent gain when using its R7 260X GPU.

Plus, it has reported a performance per watt improvement of 511 per cent using DX12 in comparison to DX11. There are more details over on its blog.

Elsewhere, a test by Forbes using an Nvidia GTX 750 Ti at 1920x1080 achieved 1,081,530 draw calls per second on DX11, and a whopping 7,653,465 draw calls per second on DX12, representing a 600 per cent increase.

A more thorough report on PC Perspective also compared DirectX to Mantle. Using an AMD R9 290X graphics card, the site stated: "We see a peak draw call rate of 19.12m per second on DX12 but an even better result under Mantle, hitting 20.88m draw calls per second. That shouldn't surprise us: Mantle was written specifically for the AMD GPU architecture and drivers while DX12 has to be more agnostic to function on AMD, Intel and Nvidia GPU hardware."

"DirectX 12 introduces the next version of Direct3D, the graphics API at the heart of DirectX. Direct3D is one of the most critical pieces of a game or game engine, and we’ve redesigned it to be faster and more efficient than ever before," said Matt Sandy on the Microsoft DX12 blog.

"Direct3D 12 represents a significant departure from the Direct3D 11 programming model, allowing apps to go closer to the metal than ever before. We accomplished this by overhauling numerous areas of the API."

Robert Hallock added on the AMD blog: "The mind-boggling data I’ve collected from the 3DMark API Overhead Feature Test is testament to our passion for DirectX 12 and its promise as a graphics API.

"While such work is never truly finished, the early results are plainly impressive. The early results are very promising for AMD customers."